E-Paper
Haryana sanitation strike turns confrontational as civic bodies launch garbage clearance drives
Police detain workers in Hisar, Charkhi Dadri, Yamunanagar and Dabwali as garbage piles up; talks remain deadlocked over regularisation and contractual employment
The 18-day-old sanitation workers’ strike in Haryana took a confrontational turn on Sunday as municipal authorities, backed by police, launched clearance operations in several cities to remove mountains of accumulated garbage, leading to detentions and clashes with protesting workers.
The most serious confrontation was reported from Hisar, where more than 3,600 tonnes of uncollected waste had accumulated during the strike. Around 5 am, a municipal corporation team accompanied by a police contingent, earth movers and dumpers reached ITI Chowk to clear the garbage.
Striking workers attempted to stop the operation, following which police detained several protesters. A confrontation also broke out between women sanitation workers and women police personnel. The protesting women allegedly threw garbage at the police, prompting the women personnel to intervene and take several of them into custody. The detained workers were taken to the police lines in roadways buses.
The prolonged strike has severely affected sanitation services in Hisar, with garbage spilling onto major roads and accumulating in residential colonies and other public places. Besides disrupting traffic, the waste heaps have raised concerns over the risk of communicable diseases.
Police have also registered an FIR against 16 named sanitation workers, including Municipal Employees Union unit president Surender Golu, in connection with an earlier confrontation at ITI Chowk. Around 100 unidentified workers have also been booked.
The case, registered on a complaint by municipal engineer Amit Berwal and reports from sanitation inspectors, invokes Sections 121(1), 132, 189(2), 190, 191(2), 221, 270 and 351(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Sub-inspector Vikas Kumar is investigating the case.
According to the municipal corporation, striking workers obstructed a joint municipal and police team during a garbage-clearance operation, climbed onto a JCB machine and allegedly pushed its driver down besides threatening officials and employees. Officials said photographs, CCTV footage and videos were used to identify those allegedly involved.
Similar action was reported from other parts of the state. In Charkhi Dadri, police detained more than a dozen municipal sanitation workers around 4 am on Sunday. The action prompted sanitation workers, employee union representatives and members of social organisations to gather in protest.
In Yamunanagar-Jagadhri, for instance, the municipal corporation on Sunday began removing around 700 tonnes of accumulated waste from 42 dumping points with police assistance; around 39 protesting workers were detained during the operation.
The strike has severely disrupted civic services across Haryana, with garbage accumulating in several urban centres. The agitation has continued despite talks between the state government and workers’ representatives on Saturday failing to resolve the key issue of regularisation.
In Bahadurgarh, sanitation workers opposed a municipal council team that arrived with police personnel on Saturday night to remove accumulated garbage. The city has been facing growing sanitation problems, with waste heaps spilling onto roads and foul odour affecting residents after nearly 17 days of the strike.
In Dabwali, Sirsa, sanitation employees’ union district secretary Suraj Kumar, after being detained, accused the government of using coercive measures instead of resolving workers’ demands. He said sanitation workers had continued to provide essential services to keep cities clean but their concerns were being ignored.
The administration, however, said the prolonged strike had disrupted sanitation services and created serious health concerns for residents. It maintained that garbage-clearance operations were necessary to restore cleanliness and prevent further deterioration of public health conditions.
The latest confrontations came a day after talks between the state government and sanitation workers in Kurukshetra failed to break the deadlock. Social justice and empowerment minister Krishan Kumar Bedi represented the government at the meeting, while representatives of sanitation, municipal and fire employees participated.
The government said it had accepted 13 of the workers’ 14 demands, but regularisation of contractual employees and abolition of the contractual system remained unresolved.
The workers are demanding regularisation of contractual employees, an end to outsourcing, departmental appointment of workers currently engaged through contractors and a minimum monthly wage of ₹30,000 for door-to-door sanitation workers.
With negotiations still inconclusive and civic bodies increasingly resorting to police-backed garbage clearance, the prolonged strike is emerging as a major sanitation and law-and-order challenge for urban Haryana.
